‘A lot of respect’ between USC coach Shane Beamer, predecessor Will Muschamp
The past and present head coaches of South Carolina football seem to have a lot of mutual respect between them.
When Shane Beamer was formally introduced as the 36th head coach in USC program history on Monday, he took a moment in his opening statement to praise the man he’s replacing — Will Muschamp.
“I want to thank coach Will Muschamp and the contributions he made to this program. Certainly a class individual, and somebody that I have a lot of respect for, that advanced this program and tried to do it for the right reasons,” Beamer said. “So I want to thank him for what he did for the University of South Carolina.”
Beamer also praised the staff of coaches Muschamp had assembled at South Carolina, saying he may retain some of them for his own staff.
And later in the press conference, Gamecocks athletic director Ray Tanner indicated that Muschamp had good things to say about Beamer as well.
“Coach Muschamp, you’ve heard me say many times, I mean we had a great relationship. We still do today. And he’s already reached out to me in support of Coach Beamer and any way that he can help,” Tanner said.
The two head coaches actually have a lot in common. Both played college ball before immediately jumping into the coaching profession upon graduation. They each have served as assistants on many staffs, including stops in the SEC and Big 12. And they are both well-respected in the profession.
While Muschamp had previously served as a head coach at Florida and had a reputation as a defensive guru, Beamer has no head coaching experience and has coached offense, defense and special teams.
Now, Beamer will be taking over a program with which Muschamp had some early success before struggling mightily the last two seasons. He was fired Nov. 15 with three weeks left to go in the 2020 campaign, having fallen to 2-5 on the year and 28-30 in his tenure.
Since his dismissal, Muschamp has given no interviews or made any public statement, though he has taken to social media to retweet messages pertaining to some of his former players.
